Baltimore Orioles highlight Week 2 of minor league notes

Two Baltimore Orioles prospects are hitting well and could add even more pop to an already impressive lineup. Week 2 of the minor league notes column.

Our feature of this week’s minor league notes column is a pair of hitters who could’ve saved the Baltimore Orioles almost $6 million.

The Orioles had a rough offseason: they missed out on Yoenis Cespedes; thought they had Dexter Fowler before the Chicago Cubs swept him away at the 11th hour; starting pitcher Wei-Yin Chen bolted for Miami; and Yovani Gallardo had to have his contract restructured due to health concerns.

The O’s did sign former Pirates first baseman Pedro Alvarez for $5.75 million and Seattle Mariners outfielder/first baseman Mark Trumbo for $9.15 million. The Orioles needed bats, and while two high strikeout hitters weren’t ideal, the results have generally been positive.

Except for Alvarez. He’s hitting .186 and slugging just .256 in 51 plate appearances and has yet to hit a home run. It’s too early to panic on Alvarez, but it definitely hasn’t been good so far.

The Orioles could’ve been aggressive by filling Alvarez’s role internally. Two Orioles prospects are crushing early on this season, and soon could be ready to contribute some pop to an already potent lineup.

One is outfielder Christian Walker. Walker has had cups of tea in the majors in each of the past two seasons but never made a significant contribution. After hitting .257.324/.423 in Triple-A last season, Walker seems to be putting it all together in 2016 with a .284/.338/.527 line with four home runs. His strikeout rate has gone up and his walk rate has gone down, which is cause for some concern, but the uptick in power mitigates that concern.

The other is first baseman Trey Mancini. He bashed Double-A pitching to the tune of a .302/.413/.698 slash line seven home runs, so the Orioles promoted him to Triple-A on Monday. In addition to those impressive numbers, Mancini was drawing a walk in 13.3 percent of his plate appearances, which is more than double his career pace.

While they would’ve been cheaper options than Alvarez, the Orioles did need a left-handed bat and both Walker and Mancini are right-handed. They also weren’t 100 percent ready for the majors, so at the time the Alvarez signing made some sense.

Entering play Wednesday, the Orioles had the third highest OPS+ (118) in the majors, according to Baseball-Reference. A very mediocre starting rotation has been just good enough to support one of the game’s best bullpens. That three-part combo has allowed the Orioles to jump to a 12-8 record out of the gate. Walker and/or Mancini could be contributing to that effort soon.

Let’s head to the rest of the minors. This week, I’ll start in Double-A.

Next: Double-A

Despite pitching in a hostile environment, pitchers are keeping runs off the board in the California League.

As we learned earlier, the California League is very friendly for hitters. But that doesn’t mean pitchers can’t thrive there.

Consider Houston Astros prospect Brock Dykxhoorn. He’s second in the California League in strikeout-to-walk ratio (7.oo) and has a 2.57 ERA. In his first start he struck out six batters in five innings. Sunday was his third appearance of the season, but it was out of the bullpen and he allowed one earned run in 4 1/3 innings. He has just two walks in 14 innings.

The best pitcher in the league might be the San Francisco Giants’ Andrew Suarez. The 2015 second round pick is scheduled to make his fourth start of the season today. Over his first three starts he struck out 20 batters, including nine April 21. His 11.25 K/9 innings pitched is fifth in the league.

Other noteworthy players:
Ian Happ (Cubs) and Ryan O’Hearn (Royals) are terrorizing Carolina League pitchers. Happ won the league’s player of the week Tueday with a .429/.600/.905 line that included three home runs.

O’Hearn is hitting .316 with four home runs over his past 10 games. The first base prospect is leading the league in slugging and home runs.

Tampa Bay Rays pitching prospect Brent Honeywell has rediscovered his fastball command and it’s turned him into a dominant starter. In four starts he has a 0.73 ERA and an eye-popping 13.00 K/BB, tied for fourth in the Florida State League. Honeywell is scheduled to make his fifth start of the season today against the St. Lucie Mets.

Next: Class A

The Texas Rangers have a Cuban prospect who is enjoying incredible luck this season.

There is a great tutorial on batting average on balls in play (BABIP) over at FanGraphs, but here’s the short version: It will take a Herculean effort for someone to maintain a .483 BABIP for an entire season.

That’s what Texas Rangers prospect Andy Ibanez’s BABIP was entering play Wednesday. This is his first stint of professional baseball in the United States, and it’s been a pretty productive start to the season. He’s hitting .408/.459/.671 with 12 doubles in 18 games.

(Ibanez is 23 years old and has three years of pro experience in the Cuban National Series, where he hit .283/.348/.419.)

As I mentioned, however, Ibanez will see his luck start to level out and his numbers should go down. Even a 150-point drop in BABIP would allow Ibanez to have a very impressive season. He’s also shown an impressive ability to manage the strike zone, drawing eight walks with only 14 strikeouts.

Pitcher Anderson Espinoza of the Boston Red Sox is living up to his scouting reports. The Red Sox’s No. 2 prospect according to Baseball Prospectus has a 2.45 ERA in four starts. He’s struck out 20 hitters and walked just five in 18 1/3 innings and is holding hitters to a .212 average.

In the Midwest League, the San Diego Padres are getting huge offensive production from catcher Austin Allen. He’s hitting .509/.567/.667 … .509! …and has a struck out just eight times. Look for his numbers to drop a lot, but the 2015 fourth-rounder is off to a great start.

Next: Triple-A

A young Phillies pitcher seems to be enjoying his change of scenery.

Last week I mentioned that several teams had starters in Triple-A who were close to being ready for the major league debuts. I left out the Philadelphia Phillies’ Mark Appel, but he looks like he’s close as well.

Apparently a change of scenery was all he needed. Appel has lost much of the luster that made him the No. 1 overall pick in 2013 by the Astros ahead of some guy named Kris Bryant. Appel has had an up-and-down ride since then as control problems hampered him at times, but he seems to be trending up.

Through three starts, Appel has a 1.62 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 16 2/3 innings. More importantly, he’s walked only five batters. That means he’s handing out 2.70 BB/9, which is down from the 3.27 he walked since his promotion to Double-A in 2014.

A pitcher who is still figuring out control problems is the Atlanta Braves’ Tyrell Jenkins. Jenkins walked five batters in three innings of work April 10 in his first start of the season. Since then he’s been much better, making three starts that each lasted six innings. In those three starts he walked a combined five batters.

In spite of the elevated walk total, Jenkins has just a 1.71 ERA. If he continues to maintain the control from his last three starts, Jenkins will be in for a productive season.

And now for a bias alert: Brewers shortstop Orlando Arcia is my favorite minor league baseball player. He caught my attention last season when he was the best hitter on the homeless Biloxi Shuckers and I couldn’t stop watching him. He vaulted up prospect rankings and now he’s very close to the majors.

The Brewers will be cautious about promoting him so they don’t start his arbitration clock to soon. In the meantime, I will sing his praises until he is promoted and then I will sing them some more.

Next: Has Jamaal Charles Lost a Step?

Arcia hit .307/.347/.453 last season and won a minor league Gold Glove award and the Brewers’ Minor League Player of the Year. He hit his second home run of 2016 season Tuesday and is hitting .313/.351/.448.